Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent Buscemi (/buːˈsɛmi/;12 Italian: buʃˈʃɛːmi; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, director, and former firefighter. Buscemi has starred and supported in numerous successful Hollywood and indie films, including Parting Glances, New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs, Desperado, Con Air, Armageddon, The Grey Zone, Ghost World, Big Fish, and The Death of Stalin. He is also known for his appearances in the Coen brothers films Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski. Buscemi provides the voice of Randall Boggs in the Monsters, Inc. franchise. From 2010 to 2014 he portrayed Enoch "Nucky" Thompson in the critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire, which earned him two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe, and two nominations for an Emmy Award. He made his directorial debut in 1996 with Trees Lounge, in which he also starred. Other works include Animal Factory(2000), Lonesome Jim (2005), and Interview (2007). He has also directed numerous episodes of TV shows, including Homicide: Life on the Street, The Sopranos, Oz, 30 Rock, and Nurse Jackie. He currently hosts the Emmy Award-winning AOL On comedy talk-show Park Bench. History Early Life Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to John Buscemi, a sanitation worker and Korean War veteran, and Dorothy (née Wilson), who worked as a host at Howard Johnson's. Buscemi's father was of Italian descent; his ancestors were from the town of Menfi in Sicily. Buscemi's mother was of Irish, English, and Dutch ancestry. He has three brothers, Jon, Ken, and Michael, with Michael also being an actor. Buscemi was raised Roman Catholic. He graduated in 1975 from Valley Stream Central High School in Nassau County, New York, a school which he attended with actress Patricia Charbonneau. In high school, Buscemi wrestled for the varsity squad and participated in the drama troupe. Buscemi's 1996 film Trees Lounge, in which he starred and served as screenwriter and director, is set in and was largely shot in his childhood village of Valley Stream. Buscemi briefly attended Nassau Community College before moving to Manhattan to enroll in the Lee Strasberg Institute. In 1980, Buscemi became a firefighter in New York City, after taking a civil service test in 1976 when he was 18. For four years, Buscemi served on FDNY's Engine Co. 55 in Manhattan's Little Italy. After 9/11, Buscemi returned to Engine 55 and for several days worked 12-hour shifts alongside other firefighters to sift through the rubble from the World Trade Center. In 2003, he gave a speech supporting higher wages for firefighters at a union rally. In 2014, he was appointed as an Honorary Battalion Chief of the FDNY. Career Acting His film debut was the 1985 No Wave Cinema film The Way it Is, directed by Eric Mitchell. Other early films include Parting Glances in 1986, Slaves of New York in 1988, and Tales from the Darkside, a 1990 film with three segments. Buscemi starred in the first segment, playing Bellingham, a college student who orders a mummy and unleashes it on fellow college students played by Christian Slater and Julianne Moore. In 1990, Buscemi had a couple of additional crime roles. He played the henchman of Laurence Fishburnenamed Test Tube in Abel Ferrara's King of New York. He also played Mink in the Coen Brothers' Millers Crossing. Although he had to audition twice for this role, it marked the first of five of the Coen Brothers' films in which Buscemi appeared. Before his work with the Coen Brothers, he appeared in Jim Jarmusch's anthology film Mystery Train, released in 1989, for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male. In 1991, he played the bellboy, Chet, in the Coen Brothers film Barton Fink. His first lead role was in 1992, when he played Adolpho Rollo in Alexandre Rockwell's In the Soup. Then he came to public attention for playing Mr. Pink in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs, a role that Tarantino wrote for himself. He also appeared in Tarantino's next film, Pulp Fiction, in which he acts as a waiter at the 1950s themed restaurant which Mrs. Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega attend. In 1995, Buscemi played suspected cop-shooter Gordon Pratt in the episode "End Game" at the end of a three-episode arc of Homicide: Life on the Street. He also had a role as Phil Hickle, Ellen's father and older Pete's guidance counselor, in The Adventures of Pete and Pete, as well as guest-starring in Miami Vice in 1986. Buscemi was rumored to be considered for the role of The Scarecrow in Joel Schumacher's proposed fifth installment of the first Batman''franchise, ''Batman Unchained, before Warner Bros. cancelled the project. Buscemi's other most notable character roles include Garland Greene in Con Air, Rockhound in Armageddon, Randall Boggs in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, Romero in Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, Donny in The Big Lebowski, Carl Showalter in Fargo, Norther Winslow in Big Fish, ''Horace Nebbercracker in ''Monster House, and Seymour in Ghost World, for which he won several awards. Buscemi often plays characters that are neurotic and paranoid. He has frequently appeared in Adam Sandler films such as Airheads, Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, Mr. Deeds, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, and The Cobbler and has worked with Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Jim Jarmusch, Robert Rodriguez, and Michael Bay. He has said of his work, "I don't think of myself as having a career. I think of having jobs. When I work, I want to have good jobs. I want to do interesting films. I also want to make a living. You don't always work on the things that you can put your heart into, so it's good to work on things that you can get into one hundred percent." In 2002, Buscemi contributed to Lou Reed's concept album The Raven with the song "Broadway Song", and poems "Old Poe" and "The Cask". In 2003, Buscemi made a brief celebrity guest appearance as himself on the long-running Fox animated television show The Simpsons in the episode "Brake My Wife, Please". Most recently, Buscemi provided the voice for Dwight, a bank robber whom Marge Simpson befriends, in "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", which originally aired on October 14, 2007. In 2004, Buscemi joined the cast of The Sopranos as Tony Soprano's cousin and childhood friend, Tony Blundetto, a role for which he was nominated an Emmy Award. Buscemi had previously contributed to the show as director of the third-season episode "Pine Barrens", which was one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of the series, and the fourth-season episode "Everybody Hurts". He appeared in the episode three of season six, as a doorman in the afterlife, which is portrayed as a country club, in Tony Soprano's dream. He returned to direct the episodes "In Camelot", the seventh episode of season five, and "Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request...", the fifth episode of season 6. He also appeared in the music video for Joe Strummer's cover version of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song". Buscemi starred in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (based on Enoch L. Johnson), a corrupt Atlantic Citypolitician who rules the town during the Prohibition era. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for the role and hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live in 2011. He currently hosts, directs, and produces his own web series talk show, Park Bench, which debuted in May 2014. In January 2016, he began co-starring alongside Louis C.K. in C.K.'s comedy-drama web series Horace and Pete. Directing Personal Life Roles/Filmography Roles feb-08-2000-hollywood-ca-usa-steve-buscemi-as-cornell-shaw-in-the-F6GH77.jpg|Cornell Shaw in 28 Days neil-fleming-final-fantasy-the-spirits-within-72.6.jpg|Neil Fleming in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Crazy Eyes.jpg|Crazy Eyes in Mr. Deeds norther.jpg|Norther Winslow in Big Fish untitled-4.jpg|Broadway Bob D'Annunzio in Art School Confidential Nebbercracker.jpg|Horace Nebbercracker Monster House sb2.jpg|Pierre Peters in Interview BadEminentBaleenwhale-poster.jpg|Wiley in Grown Ups franchise wayne-hotel-transylvania-38.1.jpg|Wayne Hotel Transylvania franchise Filmography Honors * November 6, 2014 FDNY, Honorary Battalion Chief4041 Category:People Category:Males Category:Actors Category:Directors Category:American Actors Category:Americans Category:Voice Actors Category:Monster House Category:Hotel Transylvania Category:People from New York